Microsoft’s Letter to Buy Nintendo in 1999 Releases in Xbox’s 20th Anniv Museum

Microsoft's letter to buy Nintendo a couple of years back, or in 1999 to be more precise, is now out in Xbox's 20th anniversary virtual museum website.

Microsoft's Attempt to Buy Nintendo in 1998

On Jan. 7, the director for third-party relation of Xbox, Kevin Bachus, revealed that Microsoft once attempted to buy Nintendo in hopes to fill its then-upcoming gaming console with exclusive games, as per the report by Engadget.

However, as Microsoft met up with the execs of Nintendo to present their idea of acquisition, the Japanese gaming firm did not take the pitch of the tech giant seriously.

In fact, Bachus claimed that "they just laughed their asses off." The Xbox exec further added that the whole meeting with Nintendo seemed like "an hour of somebody just laughing at you."

Engadget further noted in the report that during that time, the American tech firm was even lagging behind another Japanese tech giant, Sony, in terms of hardware.

That said, Microsoft decided that it should focus on the hardware, while Nintendo specifically worked on the software side of things.

However, fast forward today, it turns out that the plan did not go along as expected. Instead, Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo became the top three rival console makers with their Xbox, PS5, and Switch.

Microsoft's Letter to Nintendo About the Acquisition

More than 20 years later, Microsoft decided to look back and published the letter that it sent to Nintendo about its attempt to buy it off, according to the news story by Kotaku.

Now that Xbox is celebrating its 20th birthday, Microsoft reminisces about the early days of the console. The American tech giant published the evidence that proves that it once had talks with its rival Nintendo.

The said letter was signed by the former vice president of Microsoft to the Nintendo of America, which was dated back on Oct. 20, 1999.

It is to note that Microsoft stuffed a huge watermark, saying that "Microsoft tries to acquire Nintendo," which left most of the content of the letter unreadable.

But still, there are some parts of the more than 20-year-old letter that could still be seen.

Microsoft's letter addressed to the vice president of business affairs of Nintendo of America, Jacqualee Story, began by extending gratitude for granting a meeting with the long-time president of Nintendo, Hiroshi Yamauchi, as well as Genyo Takeda.

The letter to Nintendo further noted that Microsoft understands the concerns of Takeda regarding the partnership between the two tech firms.

This article is owned by Tech Times

Written by Teejay Boris